The National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) published the accident and road safety report for the first eight months of the year indicating that there were 6,267 fewer accidents with victims (-27 percent), 58 fewer fatalities (-18.5 percent), 334 fewer serious injuries (-21.7 percent) and 8,484 fewer minor injuries (-30.1 percent) in the period under review compared with 2019.

From January to August there were 16,941 accidents with victims on the mainland, resulting in 255 deaths at the site of the accident or during transport to the health unit, 1,202 serious injuries and 19,733 minor injuries.

According to the document, in the period under review, 64.4 percent of all accidents were recorded in five districts: Lisbon (21.0 percent), Porto (17.8 percent), Braga (9.6 percent), Aveiro (8.2 percent) and Setúbal (7.8 percent).

More than half of the fatalities (51.3 percent) were on the road network under the responsibility of Infraestruturas de Portugal (39.2 percent), Ascendi (5.1 percent), Brisa (3.9 percent) and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (3.1 percent).

The report also states that the collision was the most frequent accident (51.2 percent) with the highest number of both serious and light injuries, despite the fact that the highest number of deaths resulted from crashes (47.1 percent).

According to ANSR, compared with the same period of the previous year, the crashes in the first eight months of the year caused 28 fewer deaths (-18.9 percent) and 85 serious injuries (-14.6 percent).

"Two fatalities (-4.7 percent) and 112 serious injuries (-40.0 percent) were recorded in the number of car crashes and 28 fatalities (-23.0 percent) and 137 serious injuries (-20.4 percent) were recorded", the report states.

As regards the type of road, the majority of accidents with victims occurred on roads (63.1 percent of accidents, 34.9 percent of fatalities, 44.3 percent of the seriously injured and 61.1 percent of the slightly injured) and the biggest decrease in fatalities was recorded on national roads (-15) and that of seriously injured on roads (-188) compared with the same period in 2019.

The report also indicates that 65.9 percent of fatalities were drivers, 16.9 percent passengers and 17.3 percent pedestrians.

In the case of the seriously injured, the proportion of drivers was higher (68.7 percent), while that of passengers increased to 17.2 percent and of pedestrians fell to 14.1 percent. Compared to the same period last year, there were 21.9 percent fewer drivers killed and 42.1 percent fewer seriously injured pedestrians.

As for the vehicles that were involved in accidents, cars were the majority (74.4 percent).

In the area of enforcement, the report said that more than 75.8 million vehicles were checked between January and August, which means an increase of 31 percent compared to the same period in 2019, due to the 37.2 percent increase in the radar systems of ANSR and 39.4 percent of the radars of the Lisbon Municipal Police.

More than 844,000 offences were detected in these actions, representing a reduction of 1.8 percent compared to the previous year, with speeding (63.9 percent of the time) being the most recorded offence.

The document also points out that around 64.6 million vehicles were checked between January and July, an increase of 28.1 percent compared to the same period in 2019, due to the 34.4 percent increase in the radar systems of ANSR and 44.8 percent in the radars of the Lisbon Municipal Police.

According to ANSR, more than 728,000 offences were detected in these actions, representing a reduction of 0.4 percent compared to the previous year, with speeding being the most recorded offence, with 63.9 percent of the total.